DVD Burning Coasters

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Posted:
in Genius Bar edited January 2014
(Well, I posted this in another dying thread, but the thread was on it's way out and I think it merits it's own topic)



Alright. This is starting to piss me off.



How often should there be a "bad block" when I'm burning a DVD? 'Cause it's happening 100% of the time.



At first I thought it was the cheap brand-less see-through discs that I got for about a buck a pop. Understandable... I've had this kind of trouble with el-cheepo CDs before, so tonight I went out and bought a 25 pack of TDK 2x rated DVD-Rs for $49.



I've burned 5 Cheepos and 5 TDK DVDs so far, and every one of them has had a bad block. It's in a different place each time, so it's not the source, and I thought it might have had something to do with a buffer underrun, so I quit every single other program running, and let my computer do it's thing unhindered for the half hour it took. Again, a bad block.



Now, it's not a problem when I'm doing things with many small files... since the blocks are at different places, I can pretty much guarantee that on two discs all my files will be okay. (For example, I can rest assured that on two disks my entire 4GB iPhoto Library will be represented.)



But, when I'm trying to burn a video DVD or a DVD with two or three movie files on it, then it is a problem since I can no longer assume that the file will be okay on another disk.... the file becomes completely unreadable to DVD players, VLC, and all other programs.



I'm using Toast 5.1 under OS 10.2.8 on an iMac 800 with the 2x Superdrive DVR-104 (MMC3)... but I don't think it's the software. I mean, it burns CDs just fine. And I've burned a DVD from iDVD without a hitch before. That was an Apple branded one - the one that came with the computer.



Any suggestions guys? Is this "normal"? I hate $2 coasters

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 11
    I have pretty much the same problems, although every so often, I will get a working DVD. I've tried the version of toast mentioned, and now I have been using Toast 6.03 with no luck either. I just downloaded Dragon Burn and tried that, and while the DVD finished burning (finally), it did not play in my burner. Anyone know of any other alternatives to Toast, or Dragon Burn out there?
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  • Reply 2 of 11
    alcimedesalcimedes Posts: 5,486member
    you sure there's not dust on/in the DVD burner?
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  • Reply 3 of 11
    Quote:

    Originally posted by alcimedes

    you sure there's not dust on/in the DVD burner?



    that is a possibility. I have a Powerbook G4 with a superdrive in it, how would I go about cleaning it?
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  • Reply 4 of 11
    alcimedesalcimedes Posts: 5,486member
    i'd use compressed air. on pretty much any drive. people also sell "lens cleaners".



    i haven't had phenominal luck with those, usually the compressed air did the trick. and had a lot of other uses as well.
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  • Reply 5 of 11
    Quote:

    Originally posted by alcimedes

    i'd use compressed air. on pretty much any drive. people also sell "lens cleaners".



    i haven't had phenominal luck with those, usually the compressed air did the trick. and had a lot of other uses as well.




    I appreciate the help, but would compressed air work all that well with the slot loading drive on the powerbooks?
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  • Reply 6 of 11
    alcimedesalcimedes Posts: 5,486member
    sure, that's what i use on mine.
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  • Reply 7 of 11
    Quote:

    Originally posted by alcimedes

    sure, that's what i use on mine.



    great, I'll buy some tomorrrow and hopefully that will solve the problem. Thanks for the help, I'll let you know how it goes.
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  • Reply 8 of 11
    oh ya, I forgot to mention that it still burns normal CD's fine, only has problems when burning DVD's
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  • Reply 9 of 11
    Well I tried the compressed air, and still no luck. This is driving me crazy, I wish I had counted how many coasters I was getting.
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  • Reply 10 of 11
    alcimedesalcimedes Posts: 5,486member
    as an aside, i'd start using a DVD-RW until you get the problem nailed down. they will work, you just have to trick your drive into using them. should be some threads on the subject around here somewhere.
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  • Reply 11 of 11
    baumanbauman Posts: 1,248member
    Oooh... a flurry of action on a thread I thought dead.



    Well, I'm now at home for Christmas break, and I left my iMac back at school. I'll have to try the compressed air... it may just be dusty, although it does read and write CDs fine, and it reads DVDs without a hitch. I assume it uses a different laser for the DVD stuff since it's a finer resolution, and therefore the lens would be different for that.



    I'm glad to see that this is not normal behavior... I remember about seven years ago, you were lucky if one out of every five CDs came out good. Ah, the good old days of 2x burners.



    Thanks
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